Much has already been written on the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation, but there has been very little focus on the fundamental changes to the responsibilities and liabilities that the Regulation seeks to impose on data processors ...
On July 20, 2012, the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the "Court") rendered a judgment that sheds new light on the shareholder nomination process for electing the directors of a business corporation.1 In fact, the Court confirmed that a corporation’s policy, which aimed to impose an advance nomination process at a shareholders’ meeting, was reasonable and did not infringe shareholder rights with respect to electing the directors of a corporation ...
Last Call: Do you have any Private Corporations Shares in your RRSP? The 2011 federal budget, which was tabled June 6, 2011 (after the defeated March 23, 2011 budget), proposed various broad anti-avoidance tax measures to counter the implementation of tax planning strategies involving investments in registered retirement savings plans (“RRSP”). One such anti-avoidance measure targets the shares of certain private corporations held in an RRSP after March 22, 2011 ...
In the next year, companies that work in the development of oil, natural gas or minerals will have to publicly make new disclosures of payments of $100,000 or more made to governments. The $100,000 threshold is on a project-by-project basis, and will require companies to provide details of the type and amounts of payments made ...
It is not uncommon in class actions for parties to reach a settlement that provides non-monetary relief to the plaintiffs and a payment of attorneys’ fees to class counsel. In August, however, a California federal court denied preliminary approval of such a settlement ...
While arbitration offers an excellent means for parties to get their disputes settled faster than in traditional courts, how you draft the arbitration clause in a document is critically important for a positive outcome – should a dispute arise. Legal agreements often have a clause indicating that parties agree to settle any disputes arising from the arrangement in arbitration ...
On August 29, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission released proposed rules to permit general advertising and solicitation in certain private placement offerings as required by the recently enacted JOBS Act. The proposed rules permit issuers to advertise in connection with Rule 506 private placement offerings so long as the securities are sold only to accredited investors ...
Can a building name become a geographical indicator with the consequence that businesses operating from that building cannot include the name in their trade marks? The recent decision of the Federal Court in Mantra IP Pty Ltd v Spagnuolo [2012] FCA 769 has held that the mark "Q1" is inherently adapted to distinguish the services of the accommodation provider, Mantra IP Pty Limited (Mantra), even though "Q1" was also the name of the iconic high rise apartment in wh
In our December 2011 newsletter we reported on Hong Kong's Competition Bill. Subsequent to that newsletter, further revisions were made to the original Bill and we outline below the provisions now to be enacted. The Bill was passed on 14 June 2012 and will come into effect on a day to be appointed by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development ...
The new Companies Ordinance ("Ordinance") passed on 12 July 2012 is expected to become effective in 2014, whereupon:provisions about insolvency and winding up in the current Companies Ordinance ("Current CO") will be retained but retitled as the "Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32)"; the prospectus regime under the Current CO will be moved into the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap. 577); and all other provisions under the Current CO will be repealed ...
Since 2010, foreign investors are allowed to sell their own goods and products through direct online distribution in China, while direct online distribution of goods of third parties is still subject to approval. Other value-added telecommunications services ("VATS") are still limited to foreign investment and subject to approval ...
Entertaining a trading partner may be marketing, but if the gesture conveys to the guest an expectation of favourable treatment in awarding a contract, it may be regarded as a form of economic corruption.The question posed in the title - on its surface unrelated to the law - has been raised with us on several occasions recently, by various clients and with respect to various situations ...
How difficult is it to carry out a merger or acquisition under Polish law? It really all depends on the complexity of the business model of the undertaking, and not just the legal aspects. Polish practice, much like the practice in other countries within the Continental legal system - such as France and Germany - has adjusted to solutions from the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, which plays a dominant role in corporate transactions ...
Tomasz Wardynski, Sabina Famirska and Antoni Bolecki of Wardynski & Partners co-authored the chapter on cartel regulation under the Polish law in this year’s report of Getting the Deal Through. The 2012 edition of Getting the Deal Through – Cartel Regulation provides information on application of competition regulation in 46 jurisdictions worldwide ...
The 2012 edition of Getting the Deal Through - Restructuring & Insolvency provides information on restructuring and insolvency law in 53 jurisdictions, including entities excluded from general bankruptcy proceedings, types of security on moveable and immoveable property, types of bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings, possibilities of doing business after declaring bankruptcy, bankruptcy estate liquidation rules, the effects of declaring bankruptcy, creditors’ r
You are the general counsel of a public company. The CEO walks into your office one day and says that the board of directors has identified a merger target for the company, a public company incorporated in Delaware, but time is of the essence. The CEO asks you what the differences are between one-step and two-step mergers ...
In Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bartek, the Fifth Circuit held that the federal “catch all” statute of limitations for government enforcement actions - 28 U.S.C. § 2462 - begins to run when the violation occurs, not when the government discovered the violation.1 The court also held that the statute, which bars actions seeking a “civil fine, penalty or forfeiture,” covers injunctions under certain circumstances ...
In a recent decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered the issue of stock price rebounds in reviving a securities fraud class action suit that had been dismissed by the district court for failure to adequately allege an economic loss as a matter of law. In Rosado v. China North East Petroleum Holdings Ltd., No. 11-4554-cv (2d Cir. Aug ...
The Bankruptcy Code provides a number of “safe harbors” for forward contracts and other derivatives. These provisions exempt derivatives from a number of Bankruptcy Code provisions, including portions of the automatic stay,1 restrictions on terminating executory contracts,2 and the method for calculating rejection damages ...
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story Silver Blaze, Sherlock Holmes noticed that the guard dog for a famous racehorse did not bark on the night that the horse disappeared and its trainer was found murdered on the moor. 1. Holmes correctly deduced from this that the dog must have known the killer. 2 Inspector Gregory of Scotland Yard overlooked the same clue when he earlier accused a stranger of the murder ...
This week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an expert witness’ event study as insufficient to demonstrate loss causation at trial in a securities fraud class action. In Hubbard v. BankAtlantic Bancorp, Inc., No. 11-12410 (11th Cir. July 23, 2012), the court affirmed the trial court’s decision in favor of the defendants because the plaintiffs’ expert testimony did not sufficiently isolate the effects of the alleged fraud on the company’s stock price ...
The Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Ordinance 2012 was formally adopted on 6 July 2012. The text of the Amendment Ordinance has undergone a number of changes since it was first introduced as the Personal Data (Privacy) (Amendment) Bill 2011 one year ago. One major change is the requirement to obtain express responses (as opposed to deemed consent) from the data subject for the use of personal data in direct marketing ...
You are the general counsel of a public company. One day, the CEO asks you how the “HSR Act” affects the company ...
Lionsteel Limited has been fined £480,000 and ordered to pay £84,000 costs by HHJ Gilbart at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to a single charge of corporate manslaughter during trial.The case relates to the death of employee Stephen Berry, who died from injuries sustained following a fall from height at Lionsteel's premises in Hyde, in 2008. The guilty plea was agreed by all parties at trial in June 2012, following the conclusion of the prosecution case ...
During the ITMA Asia + CITMA 2012 in Shanghai (12th - 16th June 2012), an exhibition of worldwide fame for textile machinery manufacturers, the Belgian company Picanol NV has at a Shanghai court successfully applied for and enforced interim injunctions to stop design patent infringements against three Chinese manufacturers, Guangdong Fengkai Machinery Co., Ltd., Shandong Liaocheng Youjia Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Wanli Textile and Machinery Co ...
